Songs of Fire and Ice
by Shinku Ryuuga
Summary: One year after Neku's last Game, a band by the name Pale Horse comes into Shibuya on tour. Shall two of it's members be erased in a Reaper's Game, or will they make it through?
1. Prologue

Songs of Fire and Ice

Prologue

Yawning, Christoph got up from his bed in the hotel he and his band mates were in, his black hair a mess, as usual, and, reaching for the nightstand next to his bed, Christoph thought, _"This tour in Shibuya is going to rock. Now, what songs to do, what songs to do......."_ as he took his glasses out of their case and put them onto the nightstand, and went to his suitcase, getting clothes out for the day.

Then he heard the shower turn on and a yelp occur. "Turned on the cold water, Carl?" Christoph said to the boy in the restroom, standing in front of the door.

"Oh shut up, would ya, Christoph?!" came the reply from the restroom. The voice of Carl's was deeper than any of the other's, which was why he was the lead singer.

"_WHY did I get forced to share a room with Carl, anyway?!"_ Christoph thought, stomping over to his suitcase and getting out of his pajamas and into his clothes, a black shirt with a pale horse, the band's logo, on it, black pants, and black Nike shoes. Than he put his glasses on, and waited for Carl. Guy was definitely not one of the ones that could handle themselves in a strange place when alone.

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Max grumbled as he waited for Benjamin to wake up. Sure, he could have just pushed the guy, or shaken him, but that would make the drummer mad, and a mad Benjamin would mean no drumming during rehearsal.

Sighing, Max got out his DS and started playing Pokemon Diamond, volume off. Benjamin's snoring was definitely dieing down, and Max knew that meant he was gonna get up soon.

Max himself was in a red leather vest, black jeans, and gold and black sneakers, as well as a golden cross in honor of his grandmother, though only the band knew that. His dyed crimson red hair was slicked back in a spiky style, with a spiky ponytail. The purple eyes of Maximof Vergil Yorsinski, called Max by all his friends, stared at the screen of his DS, wanting to just skip Cynthia's speech at the endgame match.

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A few hours later, we find the band of Pale Horse at the Concert Stage area, filled to the brim with fans. Most, if not all of these fans were Japanese, as the band's tour had taken them to the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan.

The concert was going well, until the intermission, which the band of Pale Horse spent backstage, just lounging around, panting, Carl more than anyone, and Christoph was the only one breathing through his nose, even though he told everyone else that nose breathing was better than mouth breathing, as the lips wouldn't dry when breathing through the nose.

Taking a drink of water, Carl said, "Alright, what song are we gonna play next?" to his other Riders of Apocalypse. It was an inside joke that the band mates were the four riders of apocalypse, since their logo, which only Christoph wore, was the symbol of the apocalypse, a pale horse. None of the four band mates actually BELIEVED that apocalyptic stuff though, they just had it as an inside joke.

Christoph suggested one of their less played songs, but it was shot down by the others because of that reason. "Oh come on, it's a good song! Why NOT play it?" he asked, thinking they didn't have a reason to not play besides it was less played.

Max looked like he was thinking, Benjamin was just lying on his back, and Carl, still panting, said that Christoph just wanted to play it because of the solos. "Okay, yeah, the solos are fun to do, but come on, the fans deserve something different, don'tcha think?" Christoph fired back, and all three others thought about it.

The stage manager came into the room, saying they had five minutes left till they had to get back out there.

Shaking his head, Christoph got up, said "Think about it." and left for the restroom. After almost accidentally scalding his hands from the hot water while washing his hands and leaving the restroom, Christoph met a boy with rather light colored hair, looking about his age, give or take a year, and wearing jeans and a button up shirt that made his girlish looks somewhat girlier.

"Uh, hi. Who are you?" Christoph asked the boy, who just said he was a fan that wanted an autograph with a shrug of his shoulders. Shrugging himself, Christoph said, "Got anything to sign and sign with?"

The boy took one of their hit CDs out of his back pocket, and a pen out of the other. When Christoph took the CD, he noticed it was the only one NOT made platinum. "To…?"

"Joshua." the boy answered. Writing down in print the boy's name, and his own in cursive, Christoph then gave the CD back, not at all curious as to why the name was American, or why the boy said it without an accent.

"So," Christoph began, "why're yo—"

Then the stage manager came over to him and said, in a frantic voice, that the others were getting ready now. "Ah crap. Seeya later, Joshua-san!" Christoph said in farewell, running for the stage.

Looking at the CD in his hands, Joshua reached to his back pocket, again, but, instead of putting the pen in, which he dropped, Joshua pulled out a……gun. Aiming the silenced nozzle at Christoph's back, Joshua fired three rounds. They all hit their mark.

Christoph's body made a thump upon landing.

Several minutes later, the other members of Pale Horse saw their bassist on the ground, covered in blood. Only one of them, Max, turned around in time to see the very same boy that killed Christoph pointing a gun at him. For some reason, his mouth wouldn't open, and he couldn't even move upon laying eyes on the boy.

Three more silenced shots, and Max fell over, on top of Christoph's facedown body. No one ever saw Joshua as they passed him.

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Welcome, to my and a friend's work on a TWEWY fanfic. I, am Shinku Ryuuga, my friend, Lyon. He and I shall be alternating chapters, so expect no normal schedule. Thank you, and please review, and expect a new chapter sometime soon.


	2. Chapter 1

A Song of Fire and Ice  
Chapter 1:  
Day 1: Dungeons and Rock Stars

Ah, the void, the end of the life, death itself, the end of it all. Max and Christoph stood on what appeared to be a black platform with darkness blanketing the area like a snowstorm in Alaska. "…Well, this sucks. At least we have our instruments, but it looks like we missed out on band practice… Speaking of our band, where are the other two idiots?" Max commented as he looked around, trying to determine where they were. The lead guitarist thought for a moment, and sighed. "We should've brought our GPS things." He muttered, and Christoph sighed.

"Yeah Max, because they have GPS systems that can track where dead people are, that makes sense." he said in retort.

Suddenly, a voice boomed, which caused the area to glow white suddenly. "Greetings, boys, let me tell you right now, who I am, is not important. Rather, we're here to discuss you guys. You are Max and Christoph. You both died of gunshot wounds at around three o'clock in the afternoon of today. You have a choice, now, so ask any questions you may have now, before I start explaining."

"Who killed us and why?" Max suddenly shouted, wanting answers for this madness.

The voice replied. "Who killed you and why is not important right now. I'll only tell you his name is Joshua, and he was one of your… biggest fans. Right now, I'm about to give you a second chance at life. Do you want to take it? Do you want to play the Reaper's Game? If you don't, trust me, you'll be erased from existence, and you'll have no chance at coming back to life at all."

"We pick the Reaper's Game." Max and Christoph said almost simultaneously.

The voice laughed in response, and replied. "Good pick, boys. Now then, your entry fees… What you like most… What you cherish… Ah ha, good pick, boys." He said with a smug tone. "Your entry fees will be Lily and Jennifer. You should know who they are. Oh, and take these." The voice said, and two black pins with an odd designs appeared in the air in front of the two rockers. They took the pins and stashed them away in their pants pockets.

Max didn't seem to want to argue. Christoph, however, began to shout in protest. "HOLD IT, BUCKO! YOU'RE NOT TAKING OUR GIRLFRIENDS FOR SOME STUPID GAME!"

The voice replied to this as well, this time in a solemn tone. "It's too late, boys. I already took them as entry fee, and I can't return them until you complete the game. However, I'm going to warn you. Should you fail the complete the game, or cheat somehow, you will be erased, and so will your entry fees. Good luck, boys, and have a good game. OH, one last thing. You'll need to find a partner once I drop you off, so I suggest you two settle any grievances you may have against each other." The voice said, now laughing like a madman as the white light disappeared, and the two were dumped at Shibuya's Scramble Crossing.

The Crossing was now a sight of horror, somewhat. Tattoo looking frogs were attacking some of the people in the crossing, while they seemed to ignore and pass right through the people. They seemed to attack certain people who were by themselves. Suddenly, one of the evil looking frogs jumped at Max, only to be smacked away by Christoph. The frog wasn't hurt at all, it was only knocked back.

Max extended his hand out to Christoph. "I don't know how we become Partners, but my gut is telling me this is how." He said, and in reply, Christoph grabbed his hand, and a bright blue light surrounded the two. They were the first partners in the game, and soon, other people began to follow their example. Soon after the light show was done, Max found himself empowered somehow, and the frog charged them again. Suddenly, instinct took over the two, and they managed to create pillars of fire and ice to deal with the frogs. The other people cheered as the frogs were obliterated.

"How did we do that?!" Max asked, and suddenly, a man with huge, black wings appeared in the center of the Crossing, with nerdy looking glasses, messy, short black hair, a dark green trench coat, blue jeans, and a grey undershirt. He held what appeared to be a guide book of some sort. Hell, overall, he was an emo looking nerd. "Hello. My name is Marty, and I… am this week's Dungeon- I mean, game master!" Marty said, and opened the rule-book. "According to the rulebook, you all have 20 seconds to get the Hachicko Statue… NOW." He said, and some people just stood there. "GET GOING, PLAYERS!" He shouted, and they all held their heads in pain. A small clock with a twenty second counter appeared on their palms, painfully. Max quickly took Christoph by the arm, somewhat painfully, and ran to the dog's statue.

As Max neared the statue with Christoph in tow, the timer slowly disappeared from their hand, and once he touched the statue, all of the other player's timers were erased as well. The two band-mates let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, Marty appeared flying overhead, and opened the book. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning from the book zapped the dog statue, and it began to growl, and its eyes were glowing. It became an animal similar to the frogs from the Crossing, only it was a wolf.

Instead of Max and Christoph taking care of this monster, a playing card became embedded in the monster, and destroyed it. "MARTY!" A voice boomed from nowhere. "EXPLAIN THE GAME MORE BEFORE YOU DO CRAP LIKE THAT!"

"Fine." Marty mumbled weakly. He summoned a Frog monster again. "This, kids, is called a Noise. Throughout the Reaper's game, you have to fight these cuddly little monsters. I am the Game Master for this week's game, and I control these as I please. Also, your cell phones will prove vital in this form of the Reaper's Game. In my Reaper's Game, you all have HP, or hit points, just like Dungeons and Dragons. Your cell phone will also give you your mission each day." He said, and looked up at the sky. "IS THAT ENOUGH?" Marty shouted, and in reply, the voice boomed back, "YES, THEY CAN LEARN THE REST BY THEMSELVES"! Marty said, and disappeared. Max sighed, and took his pin out of his pocket, and flicked it into the air. All of a sudden, he began to hear thoughts. Thousands of them, and fell to his knees. Christoph helped him up, but now before the other Players soon did the same. They couldn't hear the other Player's thoughts, and could only hear the thoughts of the living.

Suddenly, they all gasped. They read the thoughts of Benjamin, Pale Horse's drummer, almost everyone watching as the sad drummer walked by the invisible Players. They knew Max and Christoph had been killed, and they all turned and looked at the two. "…Damn it." Max said, and before they could be rushed by their fans, everything soon faded to black.

As the Players all began to pass out, Marty was sitting atop a nearby building, looking down on the players and smiling. Two Reapers appeared behind him. One wore an emo looking outfit, with a black hoodie, black pants and spiked boots, and jet black hair. He appeared to be male, which his partner, who wore a rainbow colored outfit, with rainbow shoes, pants, and a jacket and undershirt. The one in the rainbow outfit was, obviously, female. "YAY, YAY, YAY, can we kill the players while you move them, Marty?" She said, as Marty used what appeared to be a D&D board to telekinetically move the groups to different sections of Shibuya. "No, Mira, you can't. Same goes for you, Ray-ray." They both had black wings like Marty, only they didn't appear to be as nerdy. "What should I do with the two Pale Horse guys?"

The Reaper known as Mira tapped her finger to her chin, and smiled. "Dump them in Udagawa. We'll set up something for them once they wake up."


	3. Chapter 2

Songs of Fire and Ice

Chapter 2:

Day 2: Surprises with Sounds

Christoph got up groggily, and looked around, not sure at all where he and Max were. Speaking of Max……

"Where is that guy?" Christoph said, looking around again, no sign of the Polish guitarist anywhere. Getting up, Christoph looked at the mural that was behind him. It had all kinds of pictures on it, and Christoph mused aloud, "Wow. Now who ever put THIS up is definitely more creative than me."

A yell from behind him got Christoph's attention, and turning, the bassist saw Max hanging out of a door to a store. "Dude, check out the stuff in here!" he yelled, going back into the store….and was promptly thrown out. The apparent store manager came out…….and looked confused.

"Dude, where'd he go?" the guy said, scratching his head and looking around, not seeing Max on the ground in front of him, or Christoph in front of the mural. Shrugging, the man went back into the store, on a corner of which there was an odd decal. It had the Player Pin symbol above what looked like an oddly sprayed on "x".

Getting to his feet and brushing the dirt off him, Max looked at the approaching Christoph, saying, "Do you think people can't see us because we're dead?"

The bassist shrugged his shoulders, saying, "Possibly. So, why did the guy throw you out?" to which the simple response from the guitarist was "Window shopping."

A little ways away, people were filtering into the little corner of Shibuya known as Udagawa, as well as two Reapers. "Hello~!" the one in the rainbow outfit called. She got Max's and Christoph's attention, mainly because it was a female voice speaking English. "You two are the two hotties from Pale Horse, aren'tcha?" Mira asked, getting a blush from Christoph, and a guffaw from the guitarist.

Her partner in black said, "Mira, we've got work to do, remember? And they haven't gotten their mission yet." to his partner. Ray-ray looked positively bored, as opposed to Mira, who looked like a little kid in a candy shop every time she laid eyes on the leaders of Pale Horse.

Just then, two phones starting ringing. Christoph automatically got his from his left pocket, flipped it up, and read the text. Max wasn't as automatic as Christoph, but he got his phone out. They both had the same thing: Defeat the Dragon and save the Princess. You have one-hundred and fifty minutes.

And then pain. And a scream. Christoph and Max cringed at the feeling of something burning into their hands, and, after it had stopped, looked at their right hands. On them, were numbers that looked like the frog Noise that Marty had summoned yesterday, except they were red, and ticking.

1:59:37

Looking up at Ray-ray, they saw that his partner was gone, and the emo was actually looking panicked.

"So THIS is what he meant!?" he said, shocked at the fact that a Dragon Noise was taking away Mira. The Dragon was brown scaled, but actually looked entirely made of brown _tattoos_. The thing that made Max, Christoph and Ray-ray look worried was the fact smoke was constantly coming from its nostrils.

Neither Player got a good look at it before it swung around a bend, erasing or severely wounding any other Player that had the misfortune of being in its path. Running for Ray-ray, the leads of Pale Horse said, "What IS that thing?"

Ray-ray, in response, just ran for the Dragon, not even saying or looking at the Players he passed.

Neither Player knew what to do, but they did know that they had to defeat the Dragon and "save the Princess". Apparently, that meant saving Mira from its clutches. "Well," Christoph began, "only one thing to do, and I think it means saving that girl." he said to Max, pointing his thumb to the direction the Dragon had gone and Ray-ray had followed.

Sighing, Max replied, "Yeah, but it's not gonna be pretty." and he started walking forward, leaving Udagawa to follow the Dragon.

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Players noticed the Dragon running for the Scramble Crossing, and attempted to fight it, but none of their pins or psychs worked. One Player did try and touch it, and he, the Dragon, and the Player's partner, disappeared. A few minutes later, the Dragon came back, no Players.

Some of the smarter Players flipped their phones open, reading their so called "stats", and saw that some had high "HP" while some had low.

Max and Christoph were both trying to see what they could in their phones and make some sense out of it. They both were on the high end of "HP", but they both noticed that the digits went down by one every few seconds as they ran.

After Christoph called for a break in the middle of the Scramble Crossing, both he and Max panted, looking at the possible directions the Dragon could have gone. Neither of them looked up as the Dragon came down on them, Mira firmly in its clutches. It barely had a shadow, whereas Mira's was not in the field of vision of either Max or Christoph, but they did hear her screaming.

Only until the people and one partner was missing did Christoph and Max notice that the Dragon had, apparently, dragged them into some sort of inbetween of the UG and RG.

Christoph noticed his bass was in hand, although he couldn't recall taking it out of the strap on his back. Max, unseen, was in the same situation.

A roar got their attention. The Dragon Noise was, as they had thought, made almost entirely of tattoos, with only the wings and the claw holding Mira not looking like the rest. It did look painful to be in the claw though. The Dragon Noise also had no visible eyes, or anything to see with.

Christoph, on impulse, began playing the Pale Horse song "Death on the Horizon", starting with a chorus. Max did the same chorus with him. They both saw soundwaves being emitted from their guitars, but only Max saw the big difference. The waves were not only vibrating, but there looked to be fire on his. Christoph's were covered in ice, though the bassist only thought the blue color was just that, a blue color.

The Dragon roared as the waves hit it, and Mira just stammered out, "What are you doing?! Don't just play a song, hit it!!" Apparently, she couldn't feel the soundwaves, though Christoph had a guess as to why.

Max, on the other hand, just told Mira to shut up for a moment. Max began doing one of their band's, Pale Horse's, songs, which actually made the Dragon Noise _drop_ Mira, in Max's zone. Christoph just kept playing Death on the Horizon, and, saw Mira disappear from the Dragon's claw. On another impulse, he began playing the Pale Horse's "Dazed and Amazed".

Max, however, ran for Mira and said, "You alright?" as he helped her to her feet……and she disappeared from his zone. And the battle entirely. After a few blinks, Max jumped away from the Dragon's tail as it came down, not sure HOW he jumped back at least four feet and landed safely. Grunting, Max grabbed his right shoulder, where the tail had grazed him. He also stopped hearing the song he had written.

In Christoph's zone, he had just been hit by a rampaging Dragon, and it hurt quite a bit. It didn't help that the thing was readying what looked like a fire blast. _"Not yet."_ he thought, getting to his feet, _"you're not killing me yet."_ At that point, Christoph willed ice to rain down on the Dragon, and saw it do a bit of damage, though he wasn't sure WHY the Dragon looked pleased, if it could.

Max, in the meantime, was playing Metallica's "All Nightmare Long". He even paused for a second and then started again, like in the actual song. And sang along. Christoph, bass back in hand, played and sang with him.

"Cause we hunt you down without mercy! Hunt you down all nightmare long!" they sang, relishing the feeling they were getting from playing.

After getting through the song, they both saw that Dragon was, in their respective zones, on fire and frozen. Max and Christoph both ran up to it and smashed their guitar and bass into the Dragon, shattering it into little specks that looked like the static you see on televisions that don't work.

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Don'tcha just LOVE cliffhangers?


	4. Chapter 3

Songs of Fire and Ice

Chapter 3:

Day 2 and 3: In Which the Stakes Are Raised

Mira went over to her two "knights" in rock outfits. She kissed both of them on the cheek, however, they both replied with something along the lines of "I have a girlfriend." In reply to this, Mira wrapped her arms around Max and tried to make him "forget" about Lily, but Max, in a fit of rage, pushed her away and shouted.

"HEY, IN CASE YOU DIDN'T HEAR US, I'M TAKEN, YOU WITCH!" The guitarist screamed at the top of his lungs. Most of the other Players heard him. The female Players all let out a simultaneous sigh of disappointment. "SO THAT GOES FOR ALL OF YOU HERE! AM I UNDERSTOOD!?"

Before Max could finish his rant, however, Mira was already in tears and the Players began blacking out. The musical duo both went limp and fell over onto the ground, right back in the middle of the Scramble Crossing. "THEY DON'T LIKE ME!" She said, and sank down to her knees, crying a river's worth now. As the two slept, she considered erasing them, but Ray-Ray held her back.

"No. Not until day seven, and even then, only Marty can attack them, I think. Just let them sleep, we'll sick some Noise on them in the morning." Ray-Ray said reassuringly to his partner, putting a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "No one makes my sister cry like this." He said, picking her up and hugged her.

Marty looked over the two from his main building in the Scramble Crossing, still moving Players around. The young reaper sighed and suddenly realized something. He began to think. Who was he to play with people's lives?

He gave it some thought. He was the appointed Game Master, a Reaper in charge of the game for this week. Suddenly, he realized something. These people were unworthy, which is why they were chosen to play this game. Especially… those two. He looked down at the tile where Max and Christoph were, and decided to move them to the concert area where they were shot.

*END OF DAY*

Max and Christoph awoke in the abandoned concert area where they were shot and killed by Joshua. Max shouted a list of profanities. "WHY'D WE END UP HERE?!" He shouted, and Christoph snapped back to reality. The concert stage was set up still from the concert hall. The lead guitarist of Pale Horse stood in horror, their blood still splattered over the area. "…Why! Why were we chosen to die?! WHY DID HE HAVE TO SHOOT US!?"

Christoph put a hand on his friend's shoulder, but Max just shrugged it off. "IF YOU DIDN'T GET SHOT AND I DIDN'T COME TO CHECK UP ON YOU, I WOULDN'T BE HERE RIGHT NOW, WOULD I!?" Max screamed, and almost got ready to punch Christoph, but he stopped himself.

Christoph retorted, angrily of course, "YOU CAN'T BLAME ME FOR ALL OF THIS, MAXIMOF! IT WAS YOUR IDEA TO TOUR IN SHIBUYA, YOU AND YOUR IDIOT GIRLFRIEND!" Christoph said, and Max immediately tackled him and tried beating the crap out of him, when both of them received text messages. "Retrieve the Ruby Ring of Power from the local Jewelry store. You have one hour. Oh, and I'm halving your HP and giving you enough money to buy the ring." Max growled as they were both burned by the timer.

"I don't get it, why did he give us all the money?" Then a second text message was received. "Oh, and if you aren't the first two there, your entry fees will be erased. Good lucks, boys, especially those Pale Horse guys!" Max's eyes widened and they both darted for the "jewelry" store, which was actually the Shibuya Department Store. However, before they could get there, a couple thousands of other Players were swarming into the store.

Before the two could get to the Scramble Crossing, they were attacked by two Green snakes, seemingly made out of tattoos again. They were quickly vanquished with Pale Horse's hit song Emperor of the Damned. Once more snakes began to show up, the two bolted for the Department store.

Marty accounted that all the Players were there, and smiled. He opened the book of his Dungeons and Dragons rule book, and created a dungeon around the Shibuya Department Store that all the Players had to traverse in order to get the Ruby Ring of Power. It was a huge maze, and wrong turns were rewarded with Noise fights. Max and Christoph sighed, and began to turn left, right, left, right, straight… The path seemed to wind on and on for hours, before someone shouted that they found the ring, only to have an explosion occur five seconds later. "Crap man, they rigged it with traps"! Max shouted

Christoph face-palmed himself, and sighed. He commented on Max's moment of stupidity, "No duh, dumbass." The two continued to traverse the maze, when the two faced a huge fork in maze, each of the sides saying "TWO MUST ENTER." Max sighed. "It's left." He said, and tried pulling Christoph towards the left when Christoph tried pulling him right. The two argued for about five minutes. "Listen man, I know you and I have our arguments, hell, we have one at least once or twice a day." Max said, putting his hand on Christoph's shoulder. "But I'm telling you man, it's left!"

"…What proof do you have?" Christoph replied. Max then pointed something out about our pal Marty. "Marty is left handed. Think about it. This whole maze is nothing but a big left turn that just keeps winding down to the middle!" He said. "It's hard to explain, he's warping the space of the maze based on who's closest, trust me."

"Alright, but if my Jenny gets erased… You're a dead man." He said, and they walked into the left area together. Max was… right, it turns out. The ring sat on a table, which Max quickly ran over and grabbed. The maze disappeared, and he held it up in triumph. "HEY MARTY, IF YOU CAN SEE THIS, BITE ME!" He screamed, and began dancing around, which Christoph gave a sigh at.

Marty kicked his table across the building-top in anger. "THOSE DAMNED METAL-HEADS ARE GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME YET! I HATE THEM!" Marty said, and calmed down. He appeared hovering over the Players, and announced. "Because Mr. Yorsinksi and his partner found the ring… You all get to keep your entry fees. BUT, I'm docking 50 HP from each of you." He said, and they all received texts saying they lost 50 HP.


	5. Chapter 4

Songs of Fire and Ice

Chapter 4

Day 4: Breaking Barriers

Christoph got up with a groan. He couldn't even remember when he blacked out that time. However, lots of voices and footsteps around him gave him a clue as to where he was. Opening his eyes, Christoph saw the Scramble Crossing through tinted glasses. Off to the side, he saw Max SNORING, of all things. _"How can that guy sleep?"_ Christoph thought. _"We be DEAD."_

Christoph got to his feet and brought out his right hand, and upon not seeing any numbers, thought aloud, "Does that clock only appear after reading the mission?" Hearing an ad, he looked up at the screen in the Scramble. It was advertising a brand called "D+B" at the moment.

Max got up as the ad ended. Shaking his head, he asked, "Where are we?" to which Christoph responded that they were in the Scramble Crossing. "How d'you know that?"

Christoph thought for a second, and then said, "Ya know, I'm not sure. I mean, it can't POSSIBLY be on our phones. That's just stupid."

Max growled at Christoph's sarcastic tone. "No need for sarcasm, dude." he said, scowling. When Christoph got sarcastic, he always made it a point to nitpick people and their small faults that they just made. The sarcastic comments kept going until Max said, "Would you shut up already?!" and tried swinging his guitar at Christoph, but gave a shout and fell onto his chest, as he had forgotten that his guitar was strapped to his back, with the same black band that encircled Christoph's torso that both of them had found on them after waking up the first day.

Christoph stopped his commenting and began chortling at Max, who growled at Christoph again, but anything that Max was about to say was put on hold with two ringing phones. Both boys became serious at those tones, since they knew that the only time's the phones rang was for missions. Flipping it up, Christoph read his phone while Max brought his "brick" phone out.

Today's mission was: Catch the invisible Thief. You have three hours. Lose and face erasure. ~The Reapers.

Then the pain of tattoos burning into their hands came.

"Invisible Thief? How can we catch someone we can't see?" Max said aloud, and Christoph thought the same thing.

"_If this so-called 'invisible' Thief can—Hold on, why is Thief capitalized but not invisible?"_ he thought, and then said, "Max, you thinking what I'm thinking?" and looked up….just as Max's stomach grumbled loudly.

"If you're thinking we gotta find something to eat, yeah, I am thinking what you are, Christoph." Max replied looking out of energy, tired, and hungry, above all else.

Rolling his eyes, Christoph said, "Come on, I saw a ramen shop in that Dogenzaka place we passed while looking for that Dragon two days ago." as he began walking towards the 104 area. Max followed eagerly, shouting out his satisfaction for most of Shibuya's UG to hear.

-------

After getting to the ramen shop, the owner and chef of the shop said "Hai, irasshai!" as Max and Christoph walked in, a bell above the door ringing and announcing their arrival seconds before the manager, Ken Doi, announced his welcome. Looking at each other, it was plain to both Max and Christoph the other's thoughts: "Can only the Reapers speak English?"

After getting a seat, Christoph said, "Ahh, Miso Ramen for me, and… Max?"

Max, while Christoph was ordering his ramen, was looking at the kanji on the menu, and said, "What do those symbols mean?" which made Christoph roll his eyes again.

"They're either kanji, or one of two versions of kana. All three are different versions of Japanese spelling." he explained, which made Max just slump. "He'll have a Miso too." Christoph said, pointing his thumb at Max.

Nodding, Ken Doi said, in a rather heavy accent, "So, you two new to Shibuya?" and made both boys sit up straight in their seats. The looks in their eyes made Ken laugh, saying, "Yes, I can speak English. I get a few different customers every now and then, so I decided to learn a few languages. I think my best is French, aside from my native tongue."

Christoph slumped back down and put his arms across on the countertop, laying his head on his forearms. "Yeah, you could say that we're new to Shibuya. I and my friend here wer—are part of a band called 'Pale Horse' and we came to Shibuya as our newest tour stop." he said in a monotonic drawl.

Max looked at Christoph and said, "Dude, could you sound any more BORING?" with appropriate gestures.

To which he got a whack on the shoulder from an irritated Christoph. "Tojikomeru, baka." he said in Ken's native language, to which he laughed, while Max growled.

"Dude, would you STOP saying stuff in Japanese around me?!" he said, and noticed Ken holding two steaming bowls of Miso Ramen. "Gimme!" he said loudly, sitting straight up and looking for a fork…..And then Max smacked himself. "Uh, do you have any forks, Mr. Ken? I, uh…."

Ken gave another laugh, reaching under the counter and giving Max and Christoph one fork each. "Arigato gozaimasu, Ken-san." Christoph said, before he began digging in with less gusto than Max.

-------

Meanwhile, on top of 104, Ray-Ray and Mira were playing Tin Pin Slammer. And Ray-Ray was losing, as usual. And, as usual, made a comeback by hitting all of Mira's other pins off of the table they were playing on with his last.

Growling angrily, Mira said, "HOW do you do that?!?!" to her brother, while Ray-Ray just shrugged before he pulled out a cigarette. Mira swiped it, and every other that he pulled out before he was out, which took about ten minutes. "These things will kill you one day, Onii-chan." she started, going into her "lecture mode" as Ray-Ray called it.

-------

Max and Christoph walked out of Ramen Don with full stomachs and lifted spirits, both thinking of different ways to catch this "invisible Thief".

An idea came to Max as he walked into, and through, the statue next to the shop. "Christoph, dude, what if this Thief is like us, a Player, or, maybe, a Reaper? Or, just someone that can come into the UG?" he suggested, gesturing with his speech.

Christoph was ignoring Max and was musing. _"The GM is a D&D nut, that much anyone that knows of the game can tell. What we ne--..........Oh god, I'm an idiot." _"Max, the GM's a D&D nut. What's a Thief in D&D?"

"Uhh…..A class?" Max said, not catching on.

"Right. So, what're the chances of the Thief being someone that looks like a D&D Thief that can enter the UG?" Christoph said as he began walking towards A-East, the place the Concert Stage they had played on was.

Max, following, said, "Pretty high, right?" as he couldn't read Christoph's mind.

Christoph began outlining his plan to Max, when he got knocked over by someone running away from something. "Whoa!" Christoph shouted as he fell. He hit the pavement rear first, then his back. His "assailant" fell right on top of him. Who turned out to be a girl with black hair?

"Ahh, gomenasai, watashi wa—ah, you don't speak Japanese, do you?" she asked, using her arms to support herself on top of Christoph, who looked like he was not happy with the current situation.

"Get off of me and I'll accept your apology." Christoph said, to which the girl hastily got up, murmuring how she was so sorry about running into him and such. Christoph, on the other hand, just got up, and thought, _"Are you out of your mind?! Remember, you're playing for JENNY. Don't mess this up and fall for some other girl that--.........Hold up. HOW did she run into me?"_ and gave the girl a queer look. Max could read that.

"So, how'd you run into my friend here? Not everyone can see us, ya know." the guitarist said, putting his hands behind his head. Christoph knew this to be his thinking position; however, Max was better at thinking and talking with people than Christoph, so he had a better chance of coming up with something while talking with the girl than Christoph did, as he either had to think for a few seconds or talk and lose his train of thought.

The girl instantly looked startled. Looking around, the girl said, "What do you mean? Of course people see us. They just ignore us is all." Her tone was strained and sounded higher than it was at first.

Narrowing his eyes, Max lowered his arms and asked, "Who are you? Working for the Reapers?" He was also reaching for his guitar, which was a sign to Christoph that he had a bad feeling. And that Max felt like hitting something.

Christoph just stood with his arms crossed and watched.

The girl looked pointedly at Max and said, "Why would I work for those bozos? I wouldn—" And she stopped dead, knowing the problem immediately. Max touched her…..and all three disappeared from the UG.

In the Noise realm, Max was looking at the girl as she was, except for tattoos on her hands and feet, looking like claws, with several blue frog Noise around her, which had what looked like black tadpoles around them. Christoph couldn't see the tadpoles or the girl, but he did see everything else. Both guitar and bass were in hand.

The girl said, "You guys suck." before she….disappeared? Max looked around before noticing her floating just a few meters above and away from the battle.

Both members of Pale Horse began playing one of their less popular but more fun songs, Roses and Revolvers, which began with a duet, by Max and Christoph. After a few minutes of killing Noise, Christoph said, "Any idea how long we gotta keep doing this?" seemingly to the air, but he was actually talking to Max, since the two figured out that, on their way to Dogenzaka, while fighting Noise for yen pins, that they could talk with each other.

"No clue. Might take a few more Noise." Max replied, noting how the girl was making odd gestures. After a few more minutes, the girl stopped gesturing and reappeared in front of Max.

She said, "You're out of your vector." before summoning more Noise. She attempted to tackle and brutally maul him, but Max knocked her off him hard with his guitar. Afterwards, he began knocking her around with fireballs, but eventually, she got pissed. She summoned a ball of darkness and spiked it at Max, knocking him hard into the ground.

The same happened to Christoph after a minute, but eventually, Marty stepped in, summoning his own Noise with his Dungeons and Dragon rule book. Once she saw the Reaper, she began to flee, screaming at the Pale Horse members, "THE NAME'S DIGIT, SO DON'T FORGET IT, YOU ZETTA LOSERS!" She said, and took off fast into a random section of Shibuya.

The small group was left outside of the Ramen Don store when Marty spoke up. "Mission complete boys, you almost had her, but the boss wanted me to pull the plug. That witch has been ruining the last few games. Her name is a mystery to us, so we only know her as Digit, like she just kindly told us."

After that, the two were conked out by a mysterious force, forced to wait for the next day to arrive.

---------

**Welp, definitely not on schedule, but I did say not to expect an actual one in the prologue. So, while I am sorry for making you wait like this, please expect chapters to be coming faster.**


	6. Chapter 5

Song of Fire and Ice  
Chapter 5  
Day 5: Dammit

Christoph and Max woke up in the Scramble Crossing of Shibuya, mostly to the sound of their cell phones going off.

Max answered his first, and received and looked at the message on his phone. "You have two hours to find and remove the sword from the ground. Use any means necessary. ~The Reapers" Max grunted in pain, and the pain from the timer being burned into their hands woke Christoph up as well.

Christoph read the message on his phone and raised an eyebrow. "…Am I reading this correctly?" He asked, rubbing his eyes in disbelief.

While the bassist of Pale Horse was questioning the message, Max decided to use the Player pin to scan anyone not involved in the Reaper's game. Thankfully, he managed to pick up something about an event going on in the Udagawa district. .

Max helped his Partner to his feet, and they quickly sprinted off towards the Udagawa district.

Mire and Ray-Ray, meanwhile, were looking out from above, Ray-Ray smoking his usual cigarette, Mira sitting off the edge of the building, watching her two favorite rock stars. "…Are you sure I can't just threaten them into liking me, Ray-Ray?" She asked, looking at her brother with puppy-dog eyes.

Ray-Ray sighed. "No. You have to respect that they're already taken, plus, they probably wouldn't want a relationship with someone who's going to try and kill them." He said, crushing his cigarette under his foot and sighing. "C'mon kid, let's go get some ramen."

Max and Christoph came to Udagawa only to find that all the Players were gathered around what appeared to be the sword of Arthurian legend, Excalibur. The two rock-stars quickly went over to investigate, only to learn that this was today's mission.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Max said, his eye twitching. "He gives us two hours to do THIS!? Oh come on, this'll be a cake-walk!" Max said, and made his way up to the blade and gave it a hard tug. It appeared to be jammed into the ground, and it wasn't going to come up anytime soon. He tried three more times before giving up. Christoph did the same.

"…OK, maybe we do need 2 hours to do this mission. Maybe there's something we're missing…." Max said, taking out his cell phone and reading the message over again. He noticed the part about any means necessary.

The players were inspecting the sword by any means possible, whether it be a logical standpoint, and anything else they could analyze about the weapon.

Finally, Max got pissed off and began to superheat the blade. When this didn't work, Christoph got an idea as well. "I'll freeze the ground, you break it." He said, and began to form ice around the area of the blade. Once this was done, Max and Christoph smashed their guitar and bass respectively against the icy surface, breaking it and freeing the sword. However, when they tried pulling it out, a black and white Dragon noise was holding onto the blade with its mouth.

Max shouted for everyone to run once the dragon began to make its way up out of the ground, blasting fire in every which direction. The two rockers cut a corner and managed to catch their breath, and tried to come up with a way to beat the dragon and get the sword.

Within the course of a few minutes, however, the dragon was staring both of the boys down, and tried to snap at them. They both split up and took the Noise on, Max trying to attack it with soundwaves from his guitar while Christoph tried to freeze the Noise in its place.

However, none of the above was working. The dragon still had the sword clenched in its mouth, and normal attacks didn't seem to work.

Suddenly, when Max seemed to stun the Noise with a fire-ball, he grabbed the sword out of its mouth and began to stab at its neck mercilessly. The beast eventually was no more, and the Pale Horse members had claimed the sword.

The other Players weren't as happy about this as they were, and it became a chase soon.

The ones being chased: Max and Christoph.

The ones doing the chasing: Every other Player.

Soon enough, Max took a chance and looked at his hand, and the numbers on the timer were as follows: 00:35:47

Things were looking bad. Apparently, they had to do more than what they thought. "Christoph, can you check your phone?" Max asked, holding the sword with both his hands, it was so heavy.

Christoph opened his phone and saw the mail icon was still lit. Choosing it, he saw that there was a small arrow at the bottom of the screen. Pressing down, he saw that the rest of the message went: P.S. You need to bury it in your partner's chest.

"Oh now that is just GREAT!!" he exclaimed, turning with Max down an alley, having gotten to the Scramble Crossing. Luckily, Max hadn't let the sword touch the ground once, and seeing as how every Player was invisible and untouchable to everyone in the RG, they didn't have to worry about stabbing anyone. Or having weird looks shot at them. So, all in all, none of the other Players saw them head into the Center St. Entrance.

Telling Max what the postscript said, both members of Pale Horse knew that something would happen. The question was… what would?

Max took a chance, and plunged the sword into Christoph's chest, where, instead of erasing him, while it did go inside Christoph, it didn't come out the other side. What did happen was that, when Max got up to the hilt, a flash of light ensued. When it disappeared…nothing had changed. Except the timer being gone from their hands, nothing had changed at all!

Not two seconds after that did they black out.


	7. Chapter 6

Songs of Fire and Ice

Chapter 6

Day 6: Why Now?

Christoph and Max woke up at the same time today, and both noticed that they were still where they had been, Center St. Entrance. Max just wondered why they hadn't been moved aloud, while Christoph noticed a familiar head walking by. The reason he could actually see it was because he could never forget how TALL Carl was. While he wasn't much taller than Christoph, who, at fifteen, was pretty tall, standing near six feet, Carl was about six-two. And Carl was the same age as Max and Christoph to boot!

Taking out his Player Pin and strumming his bass with it, Christoph read Carl's thoughts, ignoring Max's exclamation of surprise. The thoughts he got were as follows: "Hot dang, we've never sold so many CDs before! I wonder if I should have had someone kill them before we came to Japan… Nah, then we wouldn't have had so many records made. Or so many platinums. Heck, if we had gotten rid of them before now, I wouldn't be as rich!"

Opening his eyes, Christoph looked at Carl as he passed, wishing to just freeze the guy then and there. "Carl doesn't even care that we're dead. Just about money." he said coldly, knowing one thing for certain now. When Christoph and Max got through the Game, Christoph would kill Carl himself.

Max got equally angry, but didn't think what Christoph did. "Come on dude," he began, walking towards the Scramble, "let's go get something to eat at Sunshine." Christoph followed silently, thinking about how he'd kill Carl all the while.

-------

"Say Christoph, what happened when you strummed with the Player Pin?" Max asked Christoph, bringing a soda to his mouth. Christoph answered simply that he experimented a bit while Max had been sleeping earlier in the week.

"Apparently, we can either flip our Player Pins and work like a radio, tuning into people as they pass, or, strum, and just work our way in a straight line and scan one person at a time." the bassist explained before throwing another nugget into his mouth.

-------

Meanwhile, on top of 104, Mira and Ray-Ray were working on, of all things, MODDING some pins.

Letting out a frustrated growl, Mira said, "This is taking forever! How did that Yammer kid do it?!" to which Ray-Ray just shrugged.

-------

In a sewer that was known to those who knew about it as the Shibuya River, a girl that went by Digit sobbed as she held a picture of what looked like a younger version of herself, and a tanned man that was wearing all black, save a red bandanna under his hat. Both were smiling at the camera, and the man had his arms around Digit's waist, who had her own arms around his. As she rocked herself back and forth, she muttered things, the most frequent of being "Sho-niichan…"

-------

Marty let out a frustrated yell as he began pounding on the wall in front of him, angry at how those two rockers were still in the Game! They should have been erased, what, three days ago? How'd they get past Day 3?!

Gritting his teeth, Marty brought out his phone and wrote today's mission.

-------

Hearing a familiar, Christoph brought out his phone, and read aloud so Max could hear it, "Defeat the Noise. You have 240 minutes. Fail and face erasure. ~The Reapers" and then the now familiar burning sensation of having the timer burned into their hands.

Leading the way out of Sunshine, Christoph pondered, _"Defeat the Noise? Rather simple. Does that mean we have to just beat all the Noise in Shibuya? No, that'd take longer, the Players would have to coordinate and—"_ "Whoa!" he exclaimed as Max knocked him to the ground. Looking up, Christoph saw a Dragon Noise not unlike the ones they had fought when they had touched those elephant-like tattoos. "Oh crap." did not justify his shock at seeing it there.

Getting onto their feet, Max and Christoph brought their instruments in front of them and began playing, not noticing how they played something neither of them had ever practiced. The song was the Advent Children version of Nobuo Uematsu's One Winged Angel. After they saw the Noise disappear into static, they stopped playing and ran for the Scramble Crossing, where they noticed that the other Players had already gathered there.

"Hey! Anyone have any idea what's going on?!" Christoph shouted, doubting that anyone would actually answer him. However, one boy did try and make their way over to them, and he looked about their age, give or take a year, and his clothes suggested he was a native to Shibuya.

Panting as he tried to get closer to them, the boy ran closer to Max and Christoph, who both shared a look. Either the boy was a big fan and recognized them, or he knew English. The boy got near them, and said, in a rather light, of all things, Texan accent, "Hi there. You two are those Pale Horse guys right?"

Blinking, Max said, "Uh, yeah. So, you know what's going on dude?"

Nodding his head, the boy said, "Pretty much the same thing the phones said. We're getting attacked by Noise and have four hours to beat 'em all. My sister and I are the two ringleaders of that group over there," he gestured over to the other Players that, at the moment, were getting Psychs of all kinds ready, "but we're not sure what else to do besides stick together. I'm Michael by the way." he finished, taking in a breath.

Christoph said, "Alright then, Michael, any ideas for how to beat the Noise?" as the three of them began walking towards the Players in the Scramble.

Before the boy could start on anything though, an elephant's trumpet-like call alerted the group to the fact that a Noise had appeared behind them. What made Max and Christoph really worried was that it was pink. "Oh shi—" was a pretty accurate description of how the two felt, although Michael didn't really know why the two feared the elephant Noise standing before them, having not fought one.

Max gave a horrified "Run!!" as he began heading towards the Players, having a feeling more of them would be better suited to take the elephant down than just three. Sadly, the group barely got five away before the elephant stomped, making everyone in the Scramble stumble, which also stopped them from using Psychs for a few seconds at a time. What was worse, this quaking continued for five repetitions. After that, both Max and Christoph turned and used their respective elements to damage(Max) and freeze(Christoph) the elephant, giving them at least three minutes reprise.

Panting once more, Michael asked just what that elephant did. Max took the time they had to walk towards the other Players and explain what an elephant's stomp did. Apparently, it managed to stop people in their tracks, and could hurt them if it came in contact, as the tattoos that an elephant's forelegs were made of could make stomp markings on the ground, which also made any Player stumble and stop their Psychs rather abruptly.

Once the three had gotten to the other Players, an older girl, by at least three years, rushed over to Michael, looking over him and making sure that he was alright and speaking frantically.

After she was done, an embarrassed Michael told Max and Christoph, "This is my sister, Elizabeth. Elizabeth, this is Max, and Christoph, the two Pale Horse members that died."

Now that Max was closer, he could see that there were many similarities between Michael and his sister, specifically the brown hair and eyes. Their attitudes seemed to be much different too, seeing as Elizabeth curtseyed to Max and Christoph, the latter bowing back, the former just awkwardly waving.

Michael was wearing a blue sleeveless shirt that had one shade of blue, two stripes of yellow going down from the shoulders, and another shade of blue. His pants were a normal shade of white and looked like any other pair of store-bought shorts. His shoes were kind of like his shirt, varying shades of blue, and he was easily standing five-four feet tall, and had shortly cropped brown hair.

Elizabeth was wearing a green dress with frills at the bottom, and a brown jacket over the dress. She was wearing what looked like pink high heel shoes, though the color wasn't exactly right, since the sky had been turned black and red earlier by Marty. Standing at about five-seven, maybe eight, feet tall, her brown hair went down to her waist, and was straight nearer the top than the bottom, where it curled.

Some of the girls in the crowd had heard Michael saying that Max and Christoph were the two Pale Horses members that died, but they didn't get close enough to say anything, as the elephant had gotten loose, and was now charging at the Players, making the ground rumble with each foot put down. Turning back to it, Christoph asked, "Ready Max?" to which he got an "Oh yeah."

Readying their instruments and picks, Christoph began counting a beat along with their playing. "And the road becomes my bride." he said quietly, followed by Max singing out a louder version of the opening lyrics to Metallica's Wherever I May Roam. While the singing didn't do anything to help them damage the elephant, which began writhing in its place ten feet in front of them, it did help them keep track of where they were.

After finishing the small concert, to which various Players gave applause, the elephant dissolved into static.

Max slung his guitar over his back, and almost suddenly, all the Players looked shocked; their timers hadn't quite disappeared yet.

Other Players were screaming, trying to figure out why, when Max looked up and realized. He gave a quick shot, and pointed up, alerting the hoard of Players to the swarm of bird Noise gathered above. He took Christoph by the arm and flung the duo to the ground, avoiding the attack of a group of bird Noise.

Michael and Elizabeth were being pecked at by the monsters. However, this didn't last long, for Max and Christoph were quickly back on the offensive, using their guitars as weapons to swipe the monsters away.

A long battle soon raged on, with both Noise and Players being erased from existence. It was similar to the battle from the Lord of the Rings, only with more feathers, fire, ice, guitars, and random other psyches used by the various other Players that had gathered to complete the mission before their time was.

Sometime during the fight, Elizabeth was just about faced with erasure, when Max stepped in-between her and an enormous, hawk-like Noise. He quickly played Pale Horse's song Pitch Black, the sound waves quickly obliterating the Noise. He quickly helped the girl to her feet, and the fight when on.

It carried on for hours and hours, and in the end, the Players came out on top. Max, Christoph, Michael, and Elizabeth were left breathing heavily, and Max nearly collapsed to his knees.

"…Damnit… That was…. Too much…" Max said in between breaths, trying stay upright. The timer eventually disappeared from all their hands, and the Players blacked out.

Marty was left speechless. Only a few Players had been erased… And yet, the plan was an overall failure. The Pale Horse members were still in existence, along with a majority of the Players.

He quietly mumbled to himself. "…Not for long…" He said, and began drawing up a plan immediately. He was going to make sure that no one lived through tomorrow's mission. Especially them, they were going to be erased first.


	8. Chapter 7

A Song of Fire and Ice  
Chapter 7  
Day 7: Just Beat It

Max woke up groggily next to Elizabeth and Michael from the previous day. Christoph was still asleep as he rolled over and let out a surprised gasp. He accidentally had rolled over Elizabeth for some reason, in his sleep, and quickly got up before she noticed. Max wasn't going to be that lucky, however, because she had managed to wake up right after Max had gotten up.

"…Listen, I'm really sorry about that. I have that weird tendency to roll over in my sleep." The Pale Horse guitarist said, scratching the back of his head. "Hell, I think I did that to poor Christoph here once or twice."

Elizabeth smiled at him. "It's OK. To be honest, when we were younger… I'd wind up doing that to Michael here." She said while blushing. "To be honest, I want to get out of this game as soon as possible… Max… I never told Michael this, but.... I'm constantly scared now that we're in this game… I don't wanna be erased…" She said, beginning to tear up a little.

Max embraced the girl as a sign of his support, when Christoph and Michael began waking up. He quickly let go when Michael turned his head, fearing the boy's wrath would be brought upon him. "Good to see you two are awake at last." He said, rolling his eyes as Christoph continued to sit on the ground. He helped his Partner up, when suddenly; the group's cell phones simultaneously went off. "Defeat the Dungeon Master. You have until sunset. Fail and face erasure. ~The Reapers" And almost instantly, timers were burned onto their hands.

"…Did it say where he would be?" Max said, scratching his head. "…Because uh, I don't really know the guy that well..." He said, trying to figure it out.

"Alright, let's think for a moment. We're facing and Dungeons and Dragons addict… Where would you be if you were being hunted by a large sum of people?" Christoph asked the group, trying to get everyone to think.

"If video games have taught me one thing, the final boss is always in the flashiest and scariest place in the entire video game world… In our case, the biggest building…" He said, trying to think.

"Wait a minute, the concert hall! Think about it, it's big enough, right?" Michael blurted out.

"Alright gang, let's roll out!" Max said, and began to run to the Concert Hall with the group in tow, Christoph in the back and grumbling.

Once they arrived, they simply found a small note on the stage where Pale Horse had still been set up. It read,

"Dear Metal-heads,

Nice guess, but no cigar. Try bigger."

-Marty

Max began to growl in anger, and he lit the piece of paper on fire and left it to burn. He kicked the stage out of anger and shouted, "Where the hell could he possibly be?!" He asked himself and the group, then, it hit him. Almost like a wrecking ball.

"Chris, remember that building we saw when we went to get ramen that one time?" He said, almost like he was onto something.

Christoph simply nodded, thinking now that his band-mate had just gone past the brink of insanity.

"That huge skyscraper! What the hell was it called… Pork somethin'…" He said. "Anyway, I know where it is, follow me! We ain't got much time!" He said, and began sprinting towards Dogenzaka. "I know what I'm talkin' about, you don't have to fall back!"

But before they could leave, a huge dragon Noise dropped down, roaring at the Players. "Marty set us up!" Max said, and met the monster head on with a quick strum of his guitar, playing a quick solo to send sound waves at the beast as well.

The battle was quick, but it cost Max and Christoph some of their energy.

Once the group had reached Dogenzaka, the aforementioned skyscraper was dead ahead of them. Max quickly went inside and punched the elevator button in a hurry, only to realize something. The elevators were forced shut by some kind of energy field. Just as the rest of the group entered, cobra like Noise dropped from the ceiling, causing Elizabeth to scream out of fear.

Max quickly sent out a wave of fire to meet the snakes that leapt at him, while Christoph used his power over ice to keep the ones that attack him at bay. Michael and Elizabeth seemed to use their own style of Psyches. Michael seemed to use some kind of energy that he could channel into beams and other objects, while Elizabeth seemed to be able to pick up objects, hell, even other Noise, with her mind and bash them against each other.

Once the snakes were dealt with, the group of four quickly hopped into the elevator, punching in for the top floor of the building. "Come on, come on…" Max said, when suddenly, the power was cut short. The elevator stopped.

Max began to scream out of anger, punching- and leaving dents- in the walls of the elevator they were in. A small hatch was opened overhead, and someone appeared to drop something in. It was a small note, and suddenly, the elevator began to work again.

Christoph read the note out loud.

"Sometimes boundaries must be crossed before the final barrier can be broken."

"…What the hell does that have to do with beating a Dungeons and Dragons nutcase?" Max said, not even bothering to figure it out. "We don't have time for stupid quotes, can't this thing go faster!?" He asked, when the elevator had reached the top floor.

The four of them quickly got out of the elevator to find Marty sitting on a medieval throne. Marty was clapping his hands together, smiling and laughing as well. "You made it. I'm honestly surprised you figured it out." The D&D addict said, getting off his throne and smiling. "Do you know why you're here, Maximof, Christoph, Elizabeth, and Michael? Because you all screwed up in the Real Ground."

"…Real Ground?" Max said, scratching his head.

"Yes. You died, and your soul wound up here, where it should've, in the Under Ground, which is a form of the afterlife. To sum things up, you're a higher plane of existence right now, kids."

"Like Heaven?" Elizabeth asked out of curiousity.

"…You could say that." Marty said. "The real reason, though, is that you're here because you've done some things that we need you to fix before we can send you back to the Real Ground." Marty said, and smiled like he belonged in an asylum. "You two. Maximof, Christoph… You're metal-head rockers. You're not going back to the Real Ground. You don't deserve that. None of you deserve redemption!" He said, and began to turn into his Noise form, which was… a Dragon. A huge, medieval looking dragon. It was staring at the group of four now, its large yellow eyes glaring down. The arms and legs were comprised of tattoos, and were colored the same as Marty's hair.

Max barked back at the Reaper. "YOU JUST DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH PEOPLE, SO YOU TAKE IT OUT ON US PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY HAVE LIVES!" He said, and the battle began.

Max and Michael took to one zone, while Christoph and Elizabeth took to the opposite zone. Marty summoned other Noise to deal with one duo while he himself dealt with the other.

A few seconds into the battle, Marty began to spew flames at Christoph and Elizabeth. Chris used his ice Psyche to form a shield around the two, trying to force it forward, and kept repairing it.

Max took this opportunity to blast a fireball at Marty's head, gaining his attention. The dragon swept at the guitarist with his claw, knocking him down. The second Max got back up, a snake Noise wrapped itself around his legs, knocking him back down again.

Marty created a cage of fire and managed to trap the brother and sister duo in it, leaving Max and Christoph to fend for themselves.

"We're boned here, you know." Max said, backing up from the hoard of Noise gathering before them.

"Wait, Max, the note. I know what it's about now! We have to play a certain song." Christoph said, taking out his bass. "…Okay, what song?" Max said, taking out his guitar in reply.

"…Are you familiar with Michael Jackson's music?" The bassist asked, quickly tuning his instrument.

"…You don't mean? No, no I can't play the solo man, you know I can't!" Max said, his eyes widening a little.

"Max, come on, I know you can play the solo. You HAVE to, or else we're snake chow, or worse, Dragon crap." Christoph said, holding onto his partner's shoulder. "Come on man, I know you can!"

Max took a deep breath. "Hit it."

Christoph began to play the opening bass notes, which seemed to do away with the weaker Noise, and began to damage the stronger ones, which were mostly made up of Dragon and Elephant Noise.

Eventually, Max's guitar part came into the opening, and Max began singing. "They told him "Don't you ever come around here- Don't wanna see your face, you better disappear"-, The fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear- So beat it, just beat it

The song went on with Max singing and Christoph joining in on the chorus, the both of them singing in perfect harmony.

Then, Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo was coming up, and Max played it flawlessly. Hell, it even looked like he was channeling Eddie's amazing guitar soloing skills. By the time the song was over, the hoard of Noise that had been summoned had been defeated, and Marty was left considerably weaker.

Max and Christoph took this as an opportunity to make a ball of fire and ice, batting it at Marty for the final blow. The Reaper was erased, and the group of four was enveloped in a warm, white light.

They arrived in a white room, which had three tall buildings(which were actually a seat and two spires) in the background. The remaining Players were already being sent back to life, when a man dressed in a black suit approached the four. He had short, light blue hair, a small soul patch to match, and he had skin pale enough to rival Marty's. He appeared to be about 26.

The man spoke in a very, very heavy Russian accent when he told the group, "You four. You broke the rules." He said, smiling at them. He didn't really seem to care who they were, and almost didn't look at Max. "Allow me to introduce myself before I go further. I am Pietro, and I am this Game's Conductor. You see kids, I'm kind of a right-hand man to a Higher-up. Whose identity shall remain anonymous for now." He said, smiling.

Max was horrified by the revelation. "…Oh my god." He said, and sank to his knees. "BROTHER!" He said, and ran over to hug Pietro. He muttered something in Russian, only to have the Conductor push him away. "Shut it, Player. I rid myself of you and your family the day they turned their back on me."

"But Brother... We thought you died that night… We didn't know… We thought those guys killed you and… and hid the body somewhere…" He said. "Why though? You're alive… right?"

"Don't be stupid, Maximof. Of course I'm alive; I'm standing here speaking to you." He said with a sneer now. "Now, if you'll kindly shut up." He said, and opened an envelope. "You two, Maximof and Christoph, have two choices. Erasure… Or, be forced to play the game again."

Max and Christoph decided rather quickly. "Play the game again."

Pietro smiled. "Ms. Elizabeth and Mister Michael, you're going back. Congratulations, you didn't break the rules unlike these two idiots."

"Wait, what rule did they break!?" Elizabeth shouted.

"Marty left one rule in his book that he forgot to mention. If anymore than two Players should challenge him, the two who instigated the alliance were to be forced to play the Game again."

"Goddamnit, that's absolutely retarded!" Michael said, showing his teeth. "That's not fair!"

Pietro rolled up his sleeves, and showed him a series of scars. "Do you see these scars? Take a good look. These were given to me after Russian mob bosses decided mine family couldn't pay them collection money. Is that fair? I die so that precious Maximof gets to live and form major rock band!? HE GOT PICKED OVER ME!!" He shouted at Michael, and breathed heavily. "I apologize, comrades. But you have to understand. I'm just simply following mine orders."

The two suddenly disappeared into flashes of light, along with the other Players.

"Pietro… Why do this to your own flesh and blood?" Max asked, moving closer to his brother again.

"Maximof, you left me to die, you, Papa, and Mama." He said, growling. "You have been favorite since birth." He said, and examined the cross Max wore around his neck. "You were given family's prized possession. Father taught YOU how to play stringed instrument, at YOUR choosing? Me? I was forced to play piano. And then, you come here today, after you know very vell vhat happened to me, and call me brother. You make me SICK, Vergil." He said mockingly, trying to show his younger brother he meant business. "Sit around for a while; I must go talk to boss. Please, help yourselves." He said, and snapped his fingers, causing a small refrigerator to appear.

Max couldn't help but cry, and Christoph was rendered speechless. He wanted to ask his band mate about his family trouble, but… He decided to let it go. Right now, it wasn't worth it.


	9. Chapter 8

Songs of Fire and Ice

Chapter 8

In-between Weeks

Christoph munched on some cold pizza, wondering just what'll happen next. Looking around, he saw other people beginning to appear, most of them staying unconscious, some waking up and looking around, few of them getting up and talking with others, as just about all of them stayed in the spots they came into being in. Only a couple of people caught Christoph's eye.

One young man, looking around eighteen, sat and read a book, sneering up at anyone that tried talking with him. His black hoodie covered most of his face, but his mouth was visible when he looked up, and he also sat cross-legged in jeans. Christoph once noticed a familiar gleam of light on reflective glass. Probably wore glasses. His hair was unseen, except for when some kid ran up and flipped the hood, showing disheveled dirty blond hair and brown eyes, which were hidden once he flipped the hoodie back up.

Another of the people that caught his attention was a girl that looked two years older, who was glaring at him, and hardened it when he looked at her directly. The best way to describe her? Punk rocker. Her red hair was obviously dyed, yellow streaks seen here and there, and went down to her shoulders. Her t-shirt showed the British flag being stabbed by a guitar, and her legs were barely covered by torn-to-hell jeans and black boots. As she gave Christoph the bird, to which he raised an eyebrow, he saw a spiked bracelet on her right wrist.

After those two, the other people weren't as interesting, Christoph thought, finishing his cold pizza's crust. Turning to the sulking Max, Christoph said, "Come on dude, so he's changed, maybe your brother's still in there?" for the umpteenth time. No response, as usual.

Turning back to the fridge, Christoph saw it steadily disappearing. He would have whined if he weren't being looked at by so many people, as he hadn't finished the last slice of pizza in the box. Shoes on gravel were heard as Pietro's voice said, "Vell, ze Composer and I haff given your girlfriends' families zheir daughters back, so, as such, you shall not haff to vorry about your girlfriends anymore, as zey shall not be carried over to ze next Game you two shall be playing." Christoph and Max regarded the man warily, as if expecting there to be a catch to this, Max doing so sulkily. Chuckling, Pietro spoke Japanese to the assembled Players, switching to English for a few Players.

"Velcome to ze Reaper's Game. Ze reason you are all here is because you are unable to join your relatives in whatever place zhey are in, as you are undetermined in zhat aspect. A few of you may have gone zhrough zhis before, but, I shall tell you just vhat happens in ze beginning. Ve take ze zhing you cherish most, vhich is your Entry Fee for the Game, vhich may change at any time in ze Game. However, zhat does not mean zat ve shall take zat zhing. Just zat you shall haff a new zhing for us to take in ze next Game you play.

"Also, be avare zat zhere are people in ze Game called Reapers, who shall sic Noise on you during the Veek of ze Game. Noise are beings that take the form of animals, some frogs, some volves, some bears, and even moles. I shall leave ze rest of ze Noise's forms to your Imagination. Ze Noise are eizher veak or strong, as zhey can appear in solitude, or in numbers." Pietro took a second to breathe and let everyone soak up the knowledge they had just been given.

The next few minutes were spent by Pietro giving the assembled Players the warning: "You shall not be able to go through ze Game without a Partner Player, who shall help you fight ze Noise after you haff made a Pact. If you do not have a Partner by ze time ze first few Noise appear, expect to be erased." Pietro would have continued but one of the few people there that only spoke English raised a hand and asked what being erased meant. Pietro answered quite simply, "You shall lose your right to exist, as you are now, instead of living beings, dead souls that are awaiting judgment. Zhat judgment is eizher erasure, or vinning. You shall know how to vin at ze end of ze Veek, on Day Seven, if you make it zhat far."

Pietro gave the Players one last look, and then said, "And now, I say farevell, as I have given ze explanation that is needed for most first timers." He gave a sweeping bow, and…disappeared. At this, the Players began blacking out, Christoph and Max being the last Players to do so.

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A young girl, probably about the age of fifteen to sixteen, was running through the streets of Shibuya, screaming at the top of her lungs about someone chasing after her with a weapon. It was about 12:00 AM, so everyone dismissed this as a shot to get some attention from a teenage girl. As much as they thought it was, this wasn't some desperate attempt to get some attention.

The girl was wearing a punk-rocker outfit, and had her hair dyed red with yellow streaks going through it. For once, her iPod headphones weren't in her ears, rather, they were in her pockets, along with her phone, and a bunch of other crap, including her favorite lighter.

Eventually, her pursuer, who was simply wearing a black hoodie and jeans, chased her into the Udagawa district. On her way up the stairs, Rachael tripped and sprained her ankle. She looked up at her pursuer and growled, anger quickly replacing fear.

"Go on, shoot. You ain't got the courage to do it."

Oh, how she wished she was wrong right now. The chaser shot her in the knee-cap, causing her to hold onto it in pain. "DAMNIT! What the hell is wrong with you, you bloody wankah!" She said, writhing in pain. "…Why are you doing this, and who sent you?" She asked, trying to at least get some answers before she got taken out.

The chaser spoke up, finally. "No one sent me. But we're about to play a game. Get up." He said, and tossed her another gun.

"We each have ten seconds to load our guns and shoot each other. The winner walks away with their life." He said, smiling like a maniac. "GO!"

Rachael wasn't exactly a gun expert. Sure, her father may have showed her how to load a hunting rifle once, but never really showed her how to load a handgun.

She shouted again, taking up her full ten seconds to finally figure it out and load the gun. The gunmen took another shot, this time the bullet plunged deep into her heart. The girl now lay on the ground of the Udagawa district, dead. The Reaper flicked a black pin onto her body, and simply walked away. He quickly picked up his gun and disappeared into the night.

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Walking into Shibuya's Scramble Crossing, Chris Schliefert had a feeling today would be just fine. The eighteen year old walked along with his friends and fellow tourists, going from store to store, and a few restaurants.

His girlfriend just so happened to have gone into the restroom when Chris ate a spicy tuna roll, but didn't think that it would expand in his throat. Nothing helped it go down, not water, not soda, and, after a few painful seconds, Chris collapsed, lifeless, in his chair.

No one noticed a man in a red hoodie flick a black pin with a skull on it onto Chris' face, no one noticed the man just disappear, and, most of all, no one even bothered to look at Chris' eyes to see that they flashed for a second. In that second, the memories of Chris Schliefert steadily disappeared from his girlfriend's memory when, by Monday afternoon, they disappeared altogether.


	10. Chapter 9

Songs of Fire and Ice  
Chapter 9  
Week 2  
Day 1: Same Ol' Song and Dance

Max awoke in the middle of the Scramble Crossing, the same way he did precisely one week ago. He got off the ground rather groggily, and opened his eyes to almost the same scene. The newbies were running around, trying to defend themselves- alone- from the frog Noise.

He sighed, and quickly began to scan the area for his friend and band-mate, Christoph. However, after a couple of minutes of looking and avoiding Noise, Pale Horse's bassist was absolutely nowhere to be found. He began to swear at the top of his lungs, until a Noise attacked him. He managed to get it away with his guitar.

He quickly ran across the street, knocking over the kid in the black hoodie that Max and Christoph had seen before the game started. Max went back, picked him up, and began to talk fast. "You. Do you have a partner?"

"Screw you man, I'm going home." The young man said, trying to get out of Max's grip.

"No, you're not going home. You're dead, damnit." Max said. He began to grab onto the boy's hoodie a little tighter. "You don't quite understand. You're D-E-A-D. You're no longer amongst a living. Your heart stopped beating. Can I make myself any clearer?" Max said with a low growl.

"…You're an ass, let go of me." The boy said, kneeing Max in the stomach. Max let go, and grabbed the guy by the neck. "NOW YOU'VE GOT ME PISSED." The Pale Horse guitarist said. "SEE THOSE GODDAMNED FROGS HOPPING AROUND BOY? THEY DON'T APPEAR WHEN YOU'RE ALIVE, YOU FRIGGIN' GENIUS."

"This is a all a nightmare, that's all."

"….Alright then. Allow me to demonstrate that you're dead." Max said, wound up, and punched the kid in the face as hard as possible.

"CHRIST DUDE, THAT HURT-… Wait... it… hurt?" The boy wearing the hoodie said, and touched his face. It hurt. He could feel pain. This wasn't a nightmare, at least not one he could "wake up" from. "…How did this happen?"

"You died, plain and simple." Max replied, rolling up his shirt and showing his new 'friend' his gunshot wounds given to him by Joshua.

The boy sneered. "…Those are fake, but I'll play along. Name's Chris, by the way." He said, and extended his hand. Before the two knew it, a blue light enveloped them, and a Pact was formed. "Rock and roll time, bitches." Max said, and began to play Creeping Death by Metallica, and, was of course, singing along.

Chris quickly opened up his book and began to read, which caused Max to shout at him. Chris flipped him off, only to have pages fly out of the book, slashing apart the Noise at high speeds, along with Max's guitar blasts, quickly did away with the Noise.

"…Wait a minute, I know who you are." Chris said, closing the book and putting it away. "You're one of those Pale Horse jackasses." He said, sneering at Pale Horse's guitarist. "You were with your bassist, too… You goddamned headbangers make me sick. All you do is devil worship, scream lyrics into the microphone, have seizures on the drums, and play guitar solos that make people's ears bleed. It all started with goddamned Black Sabbath, carried on into a sub-section with Metallica, the devil worshipping began with Iron Maiden… then YOU GUYS showed up. You're basically a combination of everything I hate about Metal."

"Shut up, you. We make music for everyone, or at least we try." Max said, putting his hands behind his head.

"Like I said, all you metal-heads are the same." Chris mumbled.

"Come on, I gotta go find my bassist." Max said, and began to walk towards Udagawa. "We ain't got all day."

"…That's an easy one, he should be unloading your truck." Chris commented, opening his book, and taking a quick look down at Max.

Max unleashed a punch of the falcon variety on Chris's face, causing the boy in the hoodie to pass out. Max dragged his body towards Center St., grunting along the way.

Meanwhile….

Christoph awoke to the voice of a young British woman screaming into his ear for him to wake up. While in his groggy state, he patted her on the head, believing her to be his alarm clock. She began to shout more, saying not to touch her ever again. Christoph mumbled about unplugging the alarm clock, and went behind the girl, pulling out her iPod headphones. She quickly snatched them back and smacked Christoph across the face to wake him up.

"I'm up." Christoph said, and looked at the red-haired woman. "Oh hey, I remember you."

"Shaddap headbanger, and get up. Those damned frogs attacked, so I dragged your sorry hide here" She said, and began walking away.

Christoph quickly looked up to see a swarm of Frog Noise coming his way. "…We have to form a pact, now." He said, and ran over towards the girl. "Please, whatever your name is, we have to form a pact if you want to live."

"I'd rather die."

"…Are you serious, woman? You'd rather die and not see anyone you love or care about ever again? What about your entry fee?" Christoph said, trying to convince the girl to join up with him.

"Name's Rachael, and what the hell's an entry fee?" She said in reply.

"…You're playing the Reaper's Game. If you screw up, you'll no longer exist, and the thing you care about most will as well."

"…Fine." She said reluctantly, and the blue light enveloped them as well. Rachael promptly tore her hand away from his.

Sighing, Christoph turned to the Frogs. He held his hands out, and said, "Seek and Destroy. Slice them to bits!" As he said those words, swords of various kinds began forming in midair. After that, they either went to stab through the swarm of Noise, or did the other thing he commanded, slice them to bits. After a few minutes, none of the Noise were around anymore. Smirking he said, "Didn't even need my guitar."

Turning to Rachael, Christoph asked her what the mission was. Or tried to, since Rachael was now walking away from him, towards the exit of Udagawa, iPod headphones back in place. Quickly catching up with her, Christoph asked her just what the heck she thought she was doing.

He didn't get a response, since she was too into her music.

Deciding to check his phone for the mission of the day, he saw that it was simply:

Survive Day One. You have three hours. ~The Reapers

Christoph felt a familiar burning in his left hand, and heard a scream. Looking up from his phone, he saw that Rachael had grabbed her right hand, and was staring at it in horror, muttering several things at once that just jumbled together and came out as gobbledygook. _"Did I look like that the first time I read my mission?"_ Christoph thought, putting his phone away.

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And thus, the Second Week of SoFaI begins. I and my co-author would like it very much if you reviewed this story, whether it be flames, criticism, or a simple "good chapter", anything would do.


	11. Chapter 10

Songs of Fire and Ice

Chapter 10

Week 2

Day 2: SHE's the GM?!

Three days ago…

Pietro watched as Mira and Ray-Ray brought a struggling Digit into view. She was bound by tattoo-chains, and her hair was rather mussed, but aside from that, she was fine. The wounds she had gotten from Mira earlier when the brother-sister team was chasing her were now healed. Patiently smiling as Digit turned a glare that would kill onto him, Pietro stood up from his chair, saying, "Leave us." to Mira and Ray-Ray, the former of which looking to her brother, who nodded, and walked out of the room, his sister following nervously.

The chains disappearing, Digit started cussing at Pietro, who said, "Now, now, just calm down and we'll talk this out like smart adults, hm?"

Digit said, "F*** you." She did stop cussing rapidly though.

Dropping the smile, Pietro went into business mode. "I'll make you an offer. Be ze GM for zis veek and I'll let any and all indiscretions you've made against us null and void. Zat is a reasonable price, no?" he said, clasping his hands behind his back.

Digit just repeated the first two words that made a coherent sentence she said to Pietro.

Sighing, Pietro said, "Very vell, if zat is how you vish to play it." He quickly whipped his right hand forward, loosing Noise on Digit. After she reappeared, her appearance was normal, but she was panting slightly. "Ah, so you know not to use ranged attacks on ze red Frogs. Good. What of zis?" Pietro whipped his left hand forward, unleashing more Noise on Digit. She stayed in the Noise zone for several seconds this time, much shorter then the first wave of Noise. When Digit reappeared this time, she didn't even look tired.

"Is that all, or are you just toying with me?" she said, putting her hands on her hips, and tapping her foot.

Pietro sighed, and said, "Alright zhen, Minamimoto-san, I'll ask again. Will you or will you not join ze Reapers in zis one Game?"

Narrowing her eyes, Digit said, "What'd you just say?" losing all semblance of playfulness.

Pietro merely stayed indifferent. "I said 'Minamimoto-san'. Is zat not your name? Or is Minamimoto Sho's profile wrong in saying his little sister likes going by Digit?"

Eyes widening, taking a step back in surprise, she said, "Y-y-you have Nii-san's profile?!"

Pietro finally smiled for the first time in ten minutes. "Yes, ve haff your brother's profile, if you vish to read it. I do know that, in it, he wrote his own little notes." _"However, you shall not see it until you agree, little girl." _Pietro thought, clasping his hands behind his back again.

Digit looked like she was considering it, shook her head a few times, nodded her head a few times, and ultimately came to her decision. "When do I send out my first mission?"

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Day 2 proper

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Getting off his back and sitting up, like a vampire half rising from his coffin, Christoph thought, _"Please say I was dreaming dear Kami-sama, please say I was dreaming!!"_ And he turned his head.

Rachael was snoring away three feet away from him.

Bolting to make it ten feet, Christoph made sure he had a good vantage point to make sure she didn't do anything that would end up hurting his chances to win this Game and going back to living, and maybe rag Max for having a girlfriend.

Christoph blinked as he thought that word. "Girlfriend" was just so……familiar to him, but he just couldn't place it. Why? Was something wrong with his head? Was there something that he should know but didn't?

Stopping that train of thought as he was getting a headache, Christoph sat down and crossed his legs, trying to get those thoughts out of his head. Christoph didn't have a girlfriend, nor had he had anyone he wanted to be his girlfriend. _"As if anyone would be the girlfriend of a bassist."_ he thought, shaking his head some and thinking back to the ending of yesterday.

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Christoph raised an eyebrow as he looked at his hand for the third time. It must have been wrong or something, since he knew that two hours and forty-five minutes couldn't have gone by in three seconds. The mission might have been given earlier though, and it may have been going on for a while. Best explanation he could come up with.

Rachael, on the other hand, was freaking out and kept sputtering things he couldn't make it. He had tried talking to her, but she just gave him a glare, and then went back to sputtering. Finally, he had had enough of her sputtering, and, glare or not, he was going to tell her just what was going on.

It took up ten of their last fifteen minutes to get the explanation of the Reaper's Game out of the way, by which time Noise had noticed them again, and Christoph brought his guitar back out, since he highly doubted that Rachael had been listening to him and was just gonna run away.

-------

After taking the Noise out, Christoph woke up in…a place called Cadoi City. "Cadoi? What kind of name is Cadoi?" he said aloud, not expecting the grunt that came from Rachael. "So you're finally awake then?"

"Shaddap headbanger." she said crossly.

Rolling his eyes, Christoph took his phone out of his pocket, checking to see if he had gotten any mission mail yet. So far, none, except all the ones from last week were gone. Weird. Oh well.

Rachael took his taking his phone out to mean something. "Looking for some leftover texts from your girlfriend?" she said mockingly, taking one iPod headphone out to hear she was right.

"Nope, checking for mission mail." he said rather nonchalantly.

Rachael didn't believe him, and looked over his shoulder, seeing that he was indeed looking at leftover texts, but there was only one and, no matter how much he pressed, the little bar that indicated that Christoph's scrolling worked, it wouldn't go down, just stayed over the text labeled "Mission 1".

Sighing, Christoph flipped his phone down, feeling dejected as he stood up, almost knocking Rachael over, as he hadn't heard her walk over. "Watch where you're going, headbanger!!" she yelled at him, but Christoph just walked away, waiting for the mission and searching for Max.

Speaking of Max…

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Max yawned at he got up, scratching his back as he tried to stand, which just resulted in him falling back onto his rear. Chris, already awake, didn't think he could handle the boy's "headbangerism" very much, but Max actually seemed quite the opposite of what he looked like when he was on stage.

Getting to his feet again, Max looked around the area they were in and saw that they were in the Miyashita Park Underpass. Max tried scanning, but only found the usual stuff. Thought blurbs that seemed to jump from head to head, the occasional nonthinker, some Noise, but that was it, no Players, except Chris.

A familiar ringtone issued from Max's and Chris' phones. The guitarist and critic brought their phones out, Chris having the nameless phone that seemingly all the Players got when they entered the Game, but Max had his brick phone.

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All over Shibuya, Players began opening their phones and seeing the mission text for today.

"Defeat the boss at 0 + 5. t = 350 min. Incompletes will be destroyed."

Players felt a burning sensation in their hands as already ticking timers appeared on them.

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Max shook his hand to get the burning out, but Chris…well, he definitely wasn't shaking his hand only.

"Would you please SHUT UP?!" Max yelled at Chris after a minute of listening to his screaming.

Chris responded that he had just been burned, probably third degree, when he noticed that his hand wasn't burning anymore. "…what the f***?" Chris said, looking at his right hand. The numbers appeared like so: 5:48:22 in tattoos.

Max just began walking to the south exit of Miyashita Park Underpass, towards Towa Records, and Cadoi City. It took Max a couple seconds to remember what streets lead where, by which time he was halfway through Towa Records.

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Christoph, who was walking to the same backstreet, was getting through Molco at the time Max entered Cadoi City. Rachael was stomping behind him, not liking being led, however, Christoph knew where Udagawa was, and she didn't, so she agreed to be led around while she learned Shibuya's workings.

She also didn't like hearing Christoph sing. However, while he had an accent, he did keep in tune and time with the songs that perpetuated Shibuya's air, singing in Japanese, so it was tolerable, at least. Rachael kept her iPod going as she followed him, not wanting to listen to the seemingly unintelligible babble that was the Japanese language.

Christoph had a good time as he walked into Spain Hill. _"Spain Hill… odd name for a Japanese street. Hm, wonder what might be going on at home… Well, only one way to know, and that's winning this Game. Maybe I'll find a girlfriend when I get back."_ he thought, humming one of the country songs he liked. If Christoph were in front of his bandmates, he'd never even DARE hum a country song, let alone try a country tempo. Come on, what kinda metal players does country? _"Well, any metal player that isn't me."_

And then he got a shock on his chest. Letting out a grunt, Christoph stopped humming and saw that there was a… BLACK jellyfish in front of him. "……Double-U Tea F, mate." he said with his best Australian accent. Rachael noticed the jellyfish too, and said, "What the heck is that thing?!"

"No clue, but it doesn't look friendly." Christoph said rhetorically, bringing his bass in front of him and giving it a quick strum. The jellyfish evaded the small sound blast he had launched at it, and then, Christoph and Rachael were engulfed in a red and green light, respectively. The two of them entered the Noise Zone.

Christoph played a quick solo on his bass, attacking the now three jellyfish in front of him, and not taking heed of the black RHINO in back. He noticed it after he was sent flying. Getting up, Christoph brought his hand forward, palm up, and brought his fingers in as if squeezing something. Ice spikes formed in the air, going through the black Noise, but not doing any visible damage. "What the…?!" Christoph said, not believing what was in front of him. Normally that killed all the Noise he saw, except those birds, but, the black Noise seemed utterly UNFAZED. Then Christoph felt a warm…something envelop him, as if something had just passed onto him from somewhere. Thinking this might help him, Christoph attacked the rhino with an ice spike from behind, and saw the rhino vanish. This made Christoph not notice two things. One, that the jellyfish attacked him, and two, the warm feeling left him; although it felt stronger for the brief moment it was on him.

Rachael was using her own psych to control sound, and felt the warm feeling envelop her for the…fifth time? that fight. Rachael blasted one of her songs from her iPod, and used the soundwaves to attack the jellyfish Noise in front of her. They both recoiled under the attack, much more violently now then the last time she had done it, and felt the warm feeling go away. She then got attacked from behind, and let out a pained scream. She heard Christoph's disembodied voice say, "You alright over there?" To which she replied "Shut up." and she began attacking the Noise again.

Forty-five seconds later, Christoph and Rachael reappeared on Spain Hill, both panting hard. "Jikushyo, what the Makai was that?!" Christoph cursed in Japanese, while Rachael just stood, hands on her knees, panting.

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Max walked through the entrance of Center St. towards AMX. It was odd, because Center St. was more on a diagonal then center, so why it was named so, Max had no idea. _"Eh, I'm not the one that came up with the names for this place anyway, why should I know?"_ Max thought, looking at his hand.

5:33:48

Sighing, he put his hand back in his pocket, and turned around. Chris was panting from the walk. "Can't we go a bit slower?" he asked, sweat pouring down his face.

"You wouldn't be sweating so much if you took that dang hoodie off, dude." Max said for the umpteenth time. "Do you not feel this heat?" It was rather humid at the moment in Tokyo's shopping center. If you weren't dressed appropriately, expect heat strokes, which is what happened to Chris. Max gave an angry groan as he picked up an arm and draped it around his shoulder. It slowed him down a bit.

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Christoph leaned against the wall of Tipsy Tose Hall, just a few feet away from Shibu-Q Heads, but he wasn't leaning because he was tired. Rachael was the tired one, leaning against the same wall, panting.

Christoph said to Rachael, "You wouldn't be so tired if yo—"

"SHUT UP!!!" the punk girl yelled. Most of Shibuya heard her. "I do NOT want to hear anything out of YOUR mouth, headbanger!!!"

Christoph growled. _"That's it, I am tired of this nonsense."_ he thought, and then Christoph spoke. "Alright you, listen up, because I am not saying this again." He got off the wall as he spoke, "One, stop with the yelling, it is annoying, I am getting more irritated by the second, and you screaming your lungs off doesn't help me come back to life at all. Two, yes, everyone that you can touch outside of shops IS DEAD, INCLUDING YOU AND ME. We will be dead until, A: We get erased by Noise, or B: we win this Game, and we have to kill the GM in the process of winning. Three, if you keep wasting my time with pointless rants about how you're not dead and just having a nightmare, or how I and my band are the worst ever, or anything else I consider crap, YOU will find yourself erased by my ice." To punctuate the point, Christoph summoned three spikes of ice aimed at Rachael's face, but were only inches away from it, and he hadn't even raised his voice the entire time. "Now, I suggest you get to walking and help me kill some Noise in Udagawa." Christoph dismissed the ice, and Rachael glared at him, but felt a needle poking her chest. "And for the last time, Udagawa is the only place we can get to, so we end our search there. Now start walking."

Christoph set off at a brisk pace, the ice needle disappearing from Rachael's chest. The girl stomped after Christoph, seething.

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**Whew! Halloween's come and gone, Thanksgiving is on the way, and a new chapter is FINALLY up! Can't say I'm proud of making you all wait this long. Oh! Can't forget that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 is coming out in nine days! What do you say to that, Lyon?**

Screw that, I have Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Eat it, Shinku.


	12. Chapter 11

Songs of Fire and Ice

Chapter 11

Week 2

Day 2, Part 2: Are you kidding me??

Max was cursing and using profanities left and right as the heavily clothed Chris rested upon his shoulder, the black hoodie drawing in so much heat that the firey-guitarist, for one time in his life, complained about the heat. "...I'm about to drop his right now... Dumbass, hoodie' wearin' son of a bi-," was all he could say as the earth shook beneath his feet, causing him to lose balance and fall to the ground; in doing so, however, he dropped Chris, which woke the critical teen from his sleep, and Max quickly shot right back up. He couldn't believe his eyes, though.

A giant, pink elephant was rushing the duo at high speed. It roared so loud that Max held his ears in pain, and just narrowly avoided its path. It seemed to be honing its attacks toward the heavy metal guitarist, despite the fact that his partner had gone on the offensive now and began to send tons of pages in an attempt to carve the elephant into mince meat. The attacks from behind were rather effective, despite the fact that Max was throwing fireballs into the gargantuan noise's face.

Eventually, Max was injured enough by the Elephant's constant thrashing about that he was slammed quite hard into a wall, to the point where he held his head in pain. Chris snickered at this. "What's wrong Metal-Head, ain't got the skull for headbangin' anymore?"

"I'll kill YOU AND this elephant, jackass." He said, and slammed his fist into the ground, where fire shot up from below the elephant. The geyser of flames rocketed the beast into the air, and stopped suddenly, letting the elephant crash into the ground with massive force. The monster wailed before it appeared to give up. Once Max noticed it wasn't erased, he went over for further inspection. The elephant wrapped his trunk around him and tried to squeeze him to death.

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Christoph and Rachael, meanwhile, were already in the Udagawa District, searching the area for the afformentioned "boss."

"Find anything yet, devil-worshipper?" Rachael said, pressing her hand up against the CAT graffiti painting on the wall. After moving her hand from one spot to the other, she noticed a kind of high pitched squeek, and turned around, and there was a little black ball. Out of curiousity, she picked it up, and began to bounce it a little.

Once it hit the ground for the third time, it unrolled into its natural form; that of a black Noise Mink, at which Rachael shrieked loud enough for just about all of Shibuya to hear.

Before Rachael could even react, Christoph had already gone on the offensive, and began to try and make swiss chees out of the the small, furry mammal. However, being a Black Noise, it wasn't exactly vunerable to normal attack; infact, it barely appeared to damage the beast at all.

"Damnit, this thing isn't going down unless we have a nuke." Christoph growled, and finally, Rachael joined the fight. She began to blast her punk rock at the Mink at the same time when Christoph's ice needles appeared to hit, and it make a noticable amount of damage.

"I figured it out, on my mark!" He said, and they released another combined attack consisting of a sonic boom and ice needles. However, as they did this, the mink summoned a mighty whirlwind in an attempt to reflect the attack back at the two teens, It worked, making them both jump out of the way. "Okay, new plan. We keep attacking until it bloody DIES!" Rachael said, and blasted it with more soundwaves, which just merely knocked it around.

Christoph facepalmed himself and growled, and created an ice sword with which he tried to stab the mink; it manuevered out of the way, and bit Christoph on arm, which gave Rachael the chance to blast it again. After this, Christoph got his stab in, which finally caused the Noise to be erased.

"Bloody hell, that thing came out of NOWHERE mate." She said, breathing heavily. "...You're bleeding, here." She said, and ripped off a piece of her shirt, and wrapped it tightly around Christoph's arm.

"Didn't know you cared." He said with a slight grin.

"Piss off." She said, scowling and walking away. "Let's just find your wanker of a friend and whoever he's been partnered up wit'."

"See? You ARE getting the hang of this!" Christoph said as he followed Rachael out of Udagawa.

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Meanwhile, Max had managed to break free of the elephant's trunk, and was proceeding to completely beat the crap out of the poor thing with guitar, which finally knocked it unconscious.

Once this had happened, Max began to play an epic guitar solo from the Pale Horse song Dawn of a New Era, which summoned a burst of fireworks to erase the gigantic Noise.

"Impressive. Your headbanger guitar solo appears to have vanquished our African friend there." Chris said, causing Max to growl and grunt as they tried to find their friends.

--------

However, before either party moved, the four Players blacked out. They were all moved to different parts of Shibuya, Max and Chris to the spot farthest from anywhere, Cat Street, while Christoph and Rachael were taken to the area around the Hachiko statue.

"Man, why are we on Player patrol today?" a Wall Reaper asked his partner for the day. They were giving the task of moving Christoph and Rachael, the former of which was heavier than he looked. The bass guitar on his back might have added to his weight. Just a little though.

"Dunno, man, but I'd like to not have English coming outta my mouth when I'm around these two. It feels weirder than Japanese, y'know?" the second Wall Reaper said.

The two Wall Reapers chatted animatedly as they carried the two Players to the Hachiko area, laying them on the statue's base.


End file.
